This photograph was used for the production of the colour lithograph music sheet cover illustration by H.G. Banks for the Tilley Sisters' song Dinkey Arno (S.45-2012). At some stage a reference has been made to the sisters being called Handel and Vesta, but no substantiation has been found yet for those names. This photograph of the Tilley Sisters, taken in a photographer's studio setting, appears to date from about 1892. Certainly the Tilley Sisters were performing Dinkey Arno with some success in 1893, at the London Pavilion and on tour, when an advertisement in The South Wales Echo, 6th July 1893, for their performance at the Newport Empire that week noted that: ' their strangely named duet threatens to outdo the memorable Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom'. Other references to the sister act show them at Edinburgh's Empire Palace Theatre in 1893, and at the Paragon Theatre of Varieties in London's Mile End Road in 1893 when a reviewer noted that 'The Sisters Tilley created something of a sensation with their vigorous dancing and high kicking in skirts' but that the audiences were calmed by 'musical selections on the bells and a cornet solo.' The great music hall impersonator Vesta Tilley (1864-1952) was at the height of her fame in 1893 and was certainly not appearing in a high-kicking double act, so it appears that the name of this act was either a coincidence or an attempt to cash in on Vesta Tilley's popularity.

Photography was a novel and exciting development in Victorian days. Most actors and actresses had studio photographs taken for ‘cartes de visite' and later 'cabinet cards', in everyday dress or theatrical costume. Both were albumen prints made from glass negatives, attached to stiff card backing printed with the photographer’s name.

‘Cartes de visite’, the size of formal visiting cards, were patented in 1854 and produced in their millions during the 1860s when it became fashionable to collect them. Their subjects included scenic views, tourist attractions and works of art, as well as portraits. They were superseded in the late 1870s by the larger and sturdier ‘cabinet cards’ whose popularity waned in turn during the 1890s in favour of postcards and studio portraits.

This photograph comes from a large collection of ‘cartes de visite’ and ‘cabinet cards’ removed from their backings and mounted in albums by Guy Tristram Little (d.1953) who bequeathed them to the V&A. A collector of greetings cards, games and photographs, Guy Little was a partner in the legal firm Messrs Milles Jennings White & Foster, and the solicitor and executor of Mrs. Gabrielle Enthoven, whose theatrical collection formed the basis of the Theatre Collections at the V&A.